Fruit of Knowledge

By Carolyn Lyon James

Let’s play a word association game. I’ll say a word, and you come up with something that can be associated with that word. For example, many people relate the word “owl” with wisdom. Water can be connected with rebirth. And a fox can be associated with cunning. How about the word “apple”? Does knowledge come to mind? Perhaps it makes you think of a teacher. In 1956, The Saturday Evening Post featured a painting by Norman Rockwell on its cover titled Happy Birthday Miss Jones, showing a teacher at the front of a quaint classroom of elementary students, her desk lined with apples. The association we make between teachers and apples seems so iconic, so ubiquitous, it may be hard to believe that it is strictly an American association. No other country links teachers with apples, and that link has only been in existence since the early 20th century. Plus, relating apples to teachers is less about knowledge than it is about Prohibition and public relations.

While it may be “tempting” to relate apples and teachers back to the original seekers of knowledge, Adam and Eve, our story actually begins in Colonial America with John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. During this time of western expansion, Chapman traveled across the United States, planting apple orchards and selling them to colonial homesteaders. Apples in the 19th century were not sweet, however, and Chapman’s religious beliefs forbade the practice of grafting trees to make a more palatable fruit. Colonists didn’t mind. Apples were a hardy crop that stayed fresh even in the winter. And their most practical use? They could easily be turned into hard cider. At a time when water was full of bacteria, cider and beer were actually safer to drink than the water. Even children were encouraged to drink it. This was also a time when a community had to pay for the food and lodging of its teacher. Wages were low, so teachers welcomed a gift of fruit or cider from the orchard.

By the turn of the century and the beginnings of World War I, religious revivalism and temperance societies had sprung up and taken hold nationwide. Activists, like the notorious Carrie Nation, started attacking saloons and apple trees with hatchets in an attempt to stop liquor sales and cider-making at its source. Once Prohibition was passed in 1920, the FBI went so far as to burn down entire apple orchards to enforce the new law.

In an effort to reinvent the usefulness of their crop, and to keep law enforcement from destroying their orchards, farmers turned to advertising to polish the apple’s reputation. The health benefits of apples were touted by slogans, such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” and ads that referred to apples as “nature’s toothbrush.” Meanwhile, farmers began grafting the different varieties to try to find the sweetest and most edible combination. Then in 1939, Bing Crosby sang the song, “An Apple for the Teacher,” in which he hoped to get in the teacher’s good graces by bringing her a sweet treat. And so, through the power of advertising and the catchy lyrics of a popular song, apple farmers were able to once again grow and sell their hardy crop to a country now eager to eat, bake, and give to teacher all the new delicious varieties available to them.

So now, let’s try that word association game again. When I say “apple,” what comes to mind? Cider? Prohibition? I think the words “teacher” and “fruit of knowledge” are still the best and most relatable words.

 

Further reading

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-apples

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-do-students-give-teachers-apples-and-more-from-the-fruits-juicy-past-26381703/

https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/giving-apples-teachers-explained_ca_5d7180cae4b06d55b970d92b

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/real-johnny-appleseed-brought-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/